Fruitless trips

Sudhir Tailangâ€™s October 22 cartoon â€” which shows a peon at the PMO narrating Prime Ministerâ€™s itinerary of foreign visits â€” is a telling comment on the frequent foreign visits of our Prime Minister. Dr Singh is reported to have made 70 trips abroad between 2004 and now. If these visits had resulted in concrete gains, there would have been no need for comment. But, politically, the visits have not added to the number of committed friends. Despite several trade agreements, neither have exports gone up nor have import costs come down significantly.
Y.G. Chouksey
Pune

Was Prime Mini-ster Narendra Modiâ€™s visit to Washington, DC, only about optics and symbolism or were his conversations with President Barack Obama meaningful? This is an important question and needs to be considered carefully.